The DO Summer Alumni Newsletter

a lumni newslet t er summer 2014

the independent st udent n e w s pa p e r o f s y r a c u s e , n .y.

INSIDE

ONLINE

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ONLINE

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New faces Meet the newest members of the paper’s Board of Directors, including the first business-side alumnus.

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Stay up-to-date with other alumni Visit The Daily Orange Alumni Association’s website to update your profile and see what your peers are doing. doaa.org

The ‘Dear Abby of Real Estate’ Syndicated columnist Edith Lank (’47) says she has no intention of slowing down.

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Follow SU and alumni news Are you on Twitter? Follow The Daily Orange, D.O. Sports and our alumni account: @dailyorange, @dosports and @doalumni.

Best of the archives A look at the content accessible thanks to the digitization project, along with an update.

PAGES 4 and 5

YOUR HELP

MATTERS. DONATE TO THE

DEAR DAILY ORANGE ALUMNI, Former presentation director Becca McGovern (’13) speaks to a group of designers during a meet-and-greet at 744 Ostrom Ave. during D.O. Palooza in February. EMMA FIERBERG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A letter from the editor: Your stories, lessons make this newspaper what it is CASE Y FABRIS

L

hail to the chief

ast spring, I remember questioning where I would end up at The Daily Orange. I didn’t imagine myself in the management office, but now that my time there is over, it’s hard to believe it has been a year.

Last semester flew by in a whirlwind with the debut of the redesigned print edition, Media Cup and a record-setting start to Syracuse’s first basketball season in the ACC. Most importantly, the semester brought former Daily Orange writers, editors, designers and photographers back to campus.

In February, we held our annual alumni event, D.O. Palooza. Despite it being Valentine’s Day weekend and mounds of snow hitting the East Coast — enough to delay the basketball game because N.C. State’s flight

couldn’t get out on time — the event was a success.

This year’s Palooza focused on enterprise reporting. For all the talk about social media and getting important information out in 140 characters or less, good INSIDE journalism The Daily comes back to Orange was strong, solid recognized by reporting. many professional On Saturday, and collegiate we broke into organziations in small groups the past year. to talk about See the staff’s award-winning specific elements photography of enterprise on Page 5 and reporting. Some read the awardwinning stories on of the panels dailyorange.com. focused on longterm reporting, following the money and telling a story visually.

One of the highlights was “Looking big picture,” a discussion of news enterprise reporting with D.O. alumni Jerry Zremski, the Washington correspondent for The Buffalo News; Stephen Dockery, a reporter for Main Justice; and Erinn Connor,

SEE FABRIS PAGE 6

The Daily Orange is celebrating its 110th academic year of publication, and we’d like to thank you for being a part of the paper’s rich history. The paper has had quite the year — from Syracuse’s move to the ACC to our archives project, there’s never a lack of something new and exciting at 744 Ostrom.

In print, The D.O. debuted a new look in the spring, embracing a fresh layout and style reflected by the award-winning dailyorange.com. The redesign incorporates new elements to modernize the paper and better serve our readers, allowing the staff to present news in a way that’s quick and easy to read.

Despite everything new brought on by this changing era of journalism, the hustle and bustle to produce The D.O. four days per week — sometimes five, with special editions — and continue to improve the staff’s skills is a persisting and important tradition. The paper fosters an environment where students can gain skills in journalism and beyond, learning invaluable lessons that can’t be taught in a classroom.

Our staff continues to produce work that is frequently recognized as some of the best student journalism in the country.

As you know from your time at The D.O., change is accompanied by new costs and challenges. Advertising income has fallen due to an unprecedented decline in lucrative national advertising. Syracuse’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference has also added expenses. The sports staff must travel much farther to cover the football, basketball and lacrosse teams. This year reporters have trekked to Florida State University, Northwestern University, Duke University and Greensboro, N.C., several times for ACC Media Days.

The last few years at The D.O. have proven that journalism is an ever-changing field and that it can be difficult to anticipate the changes ahead. Your contributions allow us to prepare for any situation.

You can help continue the tradition of excellence in journalism at The D.O. and improve the staff experience with a tax-deductible donation of your choice. Any contribution helps and we are grateful for the generosity of alumni year after year.

Thank you for your time, and for your continued support of The Daily Orange.

Best wishes from 744 Ostrom, The Daily Orange

SEE PAGE 6 FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO HELP

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eyond the Hill

eir lives b th d n a s er ff a st ge n ra Former Daily O

S R E K A M S W E N I N ALUM Meet the Board of Directors’ first business-side alumni rep

CRAIG GERARD ’04 A decade ago, when Craig Gerard would pick up his free tickets from 744 Ostrom to critique movies for The Daily Orange, he could only dream he might one day be writing for a wildly successful television show.

Since graduating from Syracuse University in 2004, Gerard has risen through the ranks of the hit CBS comThen: Staff writer at edy “How I Met Your The D.O. Mother.” The show ended March 31, Now: Staff writer for after nine seasons.

“How I Met Gerard began Your Mother,” working on the show until the during its first seashow’s finale son in 2005 as a production assistant, fetching coffee and meals for the writers and making copies. He became a writer’s assistant during the second season, and two years later he was named script coordinator.

By the fifth season, he was promoted to staff writer.

Gerard said his experience at The D.O. helped prepare him for a career as a screen-

ERIC FORMAN ’11

writer. Both environments value collaboration and taught him how to take constructive criticism.

“Being at The D.O. and having to write for editors who would give me notes and having to re-write certainly prepared me for being in

SEE GERARD PAGE 7

EDITH LANK ’47 In 1944, The Daily Orange was a girls club.

The executive editor, managing editor, editors and reporters were almost all women. With the men at war, it was their job Then: Junior to report Syracuse editor and University’s news. columnist And for Edith Lank, Now: a 1947 D.O. alumna, Syndicated it was a time when columnist women could do and author dubbed anything. the “Dear “I was very hunAbby of real gry in those days,” estate” said Lank. “And the things that happened to me, what I learned was that they don’t come knocking at your door.”

Lank, 88, credits her successful career as a journalist to her college years. During her time at The D.O., Lank served as a junior editor and a columnist.

For more than 30 years, Lank has written her syndicated real estate column for newspapers from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Maine.

Lank, dubbed the “Dear Abby of real estate,” has won numerous awards for her column and is also the author of 11 books.

But her career as a real estate columnist didn’t start until 1976, at age 50. After graduation in 1947, Lank became a wife and mother, not a reporter.

Like other women of her generation, Lank worked as an unpaid bookkeeper and secretary for her husband’s business, a real estate firm. When her son told her that he and his

SEE LANK PAGE 7

Every day brings something different for Eric Forman.

As a client solutions manager at Facebook, Forman works with some of the company’s larger advertising clients, advising them on how to spend their money better. Each client has individual issues that require different solutions, Forman said, so he Then: has to think on his Advertising feet. representative “We are a peopleat The D.O. focused platform Now: Client and we want to make solutions sure our advertisers read manager at it the same way,” Forman Facebook said. “There’s a big focus on making sure we have really, really good ads.”

After working as an ad rep at The Daily Orange and graduating in 2011, Forman worked for a London-based ad agency, where he said he learned a lot. But he ultimately wanted to work at Facebook.

Forman said he was underqualified for the jobs Facebook was looking to fill at the time, but he applied anyway.

“It’s a company I was passionate about because I really believe in making the world more open and connected,” Forman said.

He started working for Facebook in May 2013 and is based in the company’s New York office.

Forman returned to Syracuse in early February to watch the Orange take on Duke.

He left with an additional role as the newest member of The Daily Orange’s Board of Directors.

Pete Waack, the paper’s general manager, said Forman was “probably the top sales rep

I’ve had in the 12 years I’ve been here as far as his ability to bring in money and bring people into the paper.”

Waack said he thought it would be beneficial to have an alumnus from the business side on the Board of Directors. Forman was the first person who came to mind.

“He’s been successful since he’s left school and he’s got a real good business sense,” Waack said. “He’s old enough that he’s been out of school for a few years and has real-life experiences, and he’s young enough to relate to other students on the board.”

Much of Forman’s work at The Daily Orange prepared him for his current job, he said, just on a different scale. He added that he has always taken an interest in the paper because it did so much for him personally.

“If The D.O. is something I can positively affect in some way, then I want to do that,” Forman said. “If it goes away that’s very troublesome, and I want to make sure that never happens. That’s why I wanted to join the board.”

— Brett Samuels, asst. news editor, blsamuel@syr.edu

OTHER ADDITIONS TO THE BOARD Debra Gersh Hernandez became the Reporters Committee’s first communications director in 2011. Before that, she served as coordinator of the national Sunshine Week open government initiative for the American Society of News Editors and vice president of communications for the Newspaper Association of America. She was also a reporter and editor for Editor & Publisher.

Steve Kovach, Business Insider’s senior tech editor, covers consumer technology while managing a dozen writers and editors. He previously worked as a production assistant for ESPN’s World Series of Poker. At The D.O., where he served as news editor, Kovach covered and coordinated stories that included the Hill TV scandal and the Brian Shaw murder trial.

Do you get our web-only alumni newsletters? Join our listserv. Email alumni@dailyorange.com

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summer 2014

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SU’s move to the ACC further tightens sports travel budget F

our people. Two beds. One cheap motel room at the Budget Inn in Charlottesville, Va. There was barely enough room for sleeping and not enough time or hot water for showering in the morning.

Sometimes that’s life for Daily Orange beat writers, now covering an Atlantic Coast Conference program from Syracuse.

SU’s move to the ACC has undoubtedly changed the way the sports section looks at and balances its budget. It affects the way we treat road trips and decide whether we can reimburse something.

This year has been manageable. We were lucky to get out of football’s regular season with only three flights and entered the ACC and NCAA tournaments with roughly $5,000 left for the basketball postseason and the lacrosse season.

In comparison to last year, this isn’t bad ­— For the 2012-13 seasons, we had to reach past our budget in order to cover the Final Four.

But it’s unlikely we’ll be in this situation too often. The $11,000 budget currently in place limited us in some ways, including traveling by car to as far as North Carolina, leading to more missed classes and less time spent in the Daily Orange office working with writers and editors.

Although sports travel and expenses have been manageable thus far, there’s no way to anticipate what moves the SU athletics department might make. We need to prepare for any type of situation that might come up. That’s where you come in.

We hope to find a way to increase the sports budget to $13,000 for 2014-15. The football season will include road trips to Central Michigan, Wake Forest, Clemson, Pittsburgh

KINGS OF THE ROAD During the Big East years, most road trips brought D.O. beat writers only as far as Washington, D.C., with any regularity. The flights to places like Marquette and South Florida were less frequent, and therefore more manageable. Today, the Atlantic Coast Conference has four members in North Carolina alone — a trip that’s doable by car but difficult by plane because of the cost to fly to smaller-market cities from Hancock International Airport in Syracuse.

For the 2014-15 football season, the beat writers will travel to South Carolina, North Carolina and Michigan to cover games. During the 2013-14 men’s basketball season, writers went to Florida and North Carolina twice.

The increasing cost of travel — by car, or plane, or sometimes even train — is something that The Daily Orange wants to prepare for by expanding its sports budget. If you’re interested in making a contribution specifically to the sports travel budget (or to any other budget in sports) see Page 6.

STEPHEN BAILE Y

in the middle anyway and Boston College.

Those anticipated expenses are why I’m asking you to consider donating directly to the sports budget. Some alumni have paid for hotels, car rentals and flights in the past. If you would prefer to pick a specific trip to help out with, that would be appreciated as well.

To provide some background, we have been able to cover every road football and men’s basketball game this year, except the Maui Invitational. We decided to save the money for the NCAA Tournament instead of flying a writer to Hawaii over Thanksgiving Break.

We try to be as cost-conscious as possible,

following the lead of past beat writers. “(General Manager) Pete (Waack) once booked myself, Tyler Dunne and Andrew Burton in a snowboarding hostel in Salt Lake City where the live-in owner once jokingly charged us $500 per towel,” said spring 2010 sports editor Conor Orr. “That was a slight upgrade from the 13-hour train ride I took to South Bend, Ind., where I dictated my sider and notebook to the desk on the way home to a confused family cabin.”

On every road trip, we do our best to take a gas-efficient car and to stay with friends or family. For the Maryland football and men’s basketball games, we stayed at beat writer David Wilson’s house. For the men’s basketball game at Virginia, we stayed one night at editor-in-chief Casey Fabris’ house. And for the Wake Forest game, I stayed with my uncle in Winston-Salem.

We slept there again for the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. Sure, there has been plenty of bed sharing and writing from the road — assistant sports editor Trevor Hass and I recently filed stories

from the parking lot of a closed Starbucks in Virginia — but with planning and the help of others, we’ve been able to manage travel and accommodations with few problems.

Looking ahead, it’s imperative that beat writers continue to travel to road games. It gives us credibility with the coaches and athletes and more opportunities for one-onone interviews and in-depth reporting for enterprise pieces. The budget also allows us to continue to pursue stories that could require some short travel.

The best way to prepare our sports staff for what they might face in the professional realm is to mimic that process as much as possible.

By sending our writers to games, they learn immeasurable skills that will come in handy when they get their first beat reporting job at a newspaper or website.

Increasing the budget by a few thousand dollars for the next few years will go a long way in ensuring that every road game can be covered.

To guarantee The Daily Orange continues to produce some of the best sports journalists in the country, it is imperative we hold the same standard we have for the last 110 years.

But all of the current reporters understand that as student-journalists, sacrifices will have to be made. And whether that means sleeping on an air mattress or eating Waffle House for three meals each day, we’re willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. With your support, we can do it even better.

Stephen Bailey (’14) was sports editor during the spring semester. He can be reached at sebail01@syr. edu or on Twitter at @Stephen_Bailey1. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to him personally. None of the beat writers have contracted rabies, as far as we know.

The Final Four and the priceless lessons of a Daily Orange road trip

By Maddy Berner DEVELOPMENT EDITOR

A little more than a year ago, I woke up in a cramped room of a Motel 6 on the outskirts of Atlanta.

In a room designed for four, there were five of us — two reporters, two photographers and a videographer. That day, I would spend hours treading in a sea of people that had convened in the southern city for March Madness. For the first time since 2003, the Syracuse men’s basketball team was in the Final Four, and The D.O. was able to send an entire news team to cover it.

When the Orange won the Elite Eight round, sending the team to the Final Four, it meant pulling out all the stops. It meant, in addition to two sportswriters and a photographer, sending another five journalists to capture the excitement surrounding the tournament.

Once we got there, the five of us became responsible for finding, reporting, writing and photographing great stories and sending them back to home base.

In 72 hours, I wrote articles about Atlanta as a host city, students who had traveled for

the game, alumni events and super fans. With the mass quantities of people, the internet was spotty and cell phone service was minimal. Our news team was constantly scattered around the city, looking for an electrical outlet or hotel Wi-Fi that allowed us to file stories.

I have never been more stressed in my journalism career.

But because of the pressure, I enjoyed every fleeting minute of the experience. Through it all, I learned how to think on my feet, adjust to an ever-changing environment and build relationships with sources. I learned the importance of being resourceful and managing my time wisely. I learned how to work better as part of a team.

Some of these lessons could take months for student-journalists to learn, but I gained the real-world experience in three days.

This year, I was disappointed to see Syracuse drop out of the tournament before the Sweet Sixteen. There would be no following Orange fans along the tournament route, reporting from alumni bars or working on deadline in cramped hotel rooms.

In an ideal world, The D.O. would always have the resources and the opportunities to

From left: Chase Gaewski, Dylan Segelbaum, Luke Rafferty, Maddy Berner and Lauren Murphy pose outside their Atlanta hotel during the 2013 Final Four.

COURTESY OF CHASE GAEWSKI

send reporters across the United States to follow Syracuse stories. It can be a costly but highly rewarding experience, one that prepares individual reporters and helps the paper overall.

After my time in Atlanta, I felt more confident in my reporting abilities. Trips to similar events would allow me — and other D.O. reporters — to hone their skills and learn to react quickly to national news. We can’t remain stuck

inside 744 Ostrom Ave. forever. If young reporters want to spread their journalism wings, it means getting deep in real-world situations and truly testing their limits.

I think I passed my own test, and I want other D.O. journalists to do the same.

Maddy Berner (’14) is a former managing editor and copy chief. She can be reached at mjberner@syr.edu.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE

Alumni help preserve a third of D

By Kathleen Ronayne

With generous donations from more than 40 alumni, a third of newspapers in Daily Orange history are now viewable online.

Visit our website, and you can see the first paper The Daily Orange produced in 1903, when the school’s annual Salt Rush was a tradition and Haven Hall was just opening. View papers from 1972, one of The D.O.’s first years of independence, to read scathing student editorials about the Vietnam War. Open papers from 2000 to see student perspective on that year’s presidential election.

It’s all available at dailyorange.com/ archives.

Scrolling through this collection of papers provides a historical look at Syracuse University, as well as a view into the evolution of the newspaper.

A small group of students and alumni have been working with General Manager Pete Waack for several years to make this project possible, and it relies on help from the alumni who created these pages through the years.

We’re digitizing the newspapers as donations come in and loading them onto the website. It takes a few months for a year to be digitized once it is fully funded.

Meanwhile, two student members of The D.O.’s IT staff are creating a website that will make the papers searchable.

The cost to digitize a year’s worth of newspapers is $300, but we also accept partial donations. Donors are named as a sponsor of the year they contributed toward. If someone has already sponsored the year you had in mind, we’re also looking for donations for some of the paper’s earliest years that no longer have living alumni.

When this project is completed, we hope it provides pleasant trips down memory lane for our alumni, a better understanding of the paper’s history for our current staff members and a vital research tool for members of the Syracuse University community.

Thanks for your help.

Kathleen Ronayne (’12) is a member of the archives committee and a former managing editor. Email her with questions about the archives project at khronayne@gmail.com.

Eleven decades of history...

Take a look at what one can find in the archives — from burgeoning social movements to the search for a date, The D.O. has served many purposes for SU students in its 110 years.

NOV. 12, 1948

NOV. 1, 1904

WINTER 1999

JAN. 19, 2005 APRIL 17, 1967

APR

45th a

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D.O.’s papers

RIL 22, 1949

anniversary issue

OCT. 15, 1948

IS YOUR YEAR FUNDED YET?

The following academic years are fully or partially funded for digitization.

These years of course contain standout moments in Daily Orange history — the first issue, the 1971 declaration of independence — but also lesser-known gems that paint a picture of an everevolving campus.

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ANNUAL ACCOLADES

For the third year in a row, The Daily Orange was awarded an Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker award, given to the top student publications in the country. The D.O. earned an online Pacemaker in the 10,001-20,000 enrollment category. In addition, numerous individuals placed in categories for writing, design and photography:

* INDICATES THE YEAR IS SEEKING ADDITIONAL DONORS.

1903-04 1904-05 1942-43 1943-44 1945-46 1948-49 1949-50 1950-51 1951-52 1952-53 1953-54 1954-55 1959-60* 1960-61 1961-62 1962-63 1963-64 1964-65 1966-67* 1968-69 1970-71* 1971-72 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80 1980-81 1991-92 1994-95 1995-96 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01* 2004-05 2005-06 2008-09 Visit dailyorange. com/archives to see if your peers contributed to digitizing part of your time at The D.O. Sponsors for each funded year are listed.

Need help choosing a year? Contact management for ideas at editor@ dailyorange. com.

Staff photographer Zixi Wu (‘14) won first place in the general news category for her image of Student Association President Allie Curtis embracing her father after learning she would not be impeached.

Former photo editor Sam Maller (‘15) placed second in the feature picture category for his image of Spike Lee during an event on campus.

In the design categories: Former presentation director Becca McGovern (‘13) placed first in newspaper page/ spread for a postgame spread detailing the men’s basketball team’s loss in the 2013 NCAA Tournament to California. McGovern also earned third place in the infographic category for a “Media Madness” spread about Syracuse basketball on social media.

Former presentation director Ankur Patankar (‘14) placed third for a newspaper page one for a cover featuring a portrait and profile on 2012 graduate Stephen Barton, who was injured in the Aurora, Colorado, shootings in summer 2012. Patankar also placed fifth in the newsmagazine/special section cover for his Final Four special section cover in 2013 (right).

In the writing categories: Former editor-in-chief Mark Cooper (‘13) and managing editor Debbie Truong (’14) placed fourth in the sports story category for a series on Syracuse Athletics and its trend of placing athletes in specific majors (also known as major clustering).

Former editor-in-chief Dara McBride (’13) and Truong earned an honorable mention in the news story category for a story on SU’s Connective Corridor.

6 summer 2014

DONATE TO THE

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Want to make a contribution but also want to make sure your gift goes toward something important to you? Below is a wish list of some of the donations we feel would address the most pressing issues.

• Contributions to the general fund, so that we can continue to produce quality content despite huge declines in national advertising • Sponsorship of the archives digitization project: $300 per academic year, or a partial donation (see Page 5 to see which years need funding) • Computers for some of the editorial departments • Donations to the sports travel fund (the football beat writers have trips to Central Michigan, Clemson and Wake Forest next fall). Gas and hotel prices vary per trip; any contributions would be much appreciated • Equipment for the photo department, including lighting and tripods, as our photographers must often rent equipment for assignments

THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE DAILY ORANGE 1. Visit dailyorange.com/donate 2. Call the business staff at (315) 443-2315 3. Send this form and a check or cash to 744 Ostrom Ave., Syracuse, N.Y., 13210 Name: Alumni year: Address: Phone number: Email address: Please use my contribution for: [ ] General fund [ ] Sports travel budget [ ] Where most needed [ ] Other (please specify) [ ] Archives digitization .........Which year?

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FABRIS FROM PAGE 1

who recently wrote for everydayhealth.com.

Throughout the panel discussion, the alumni shared where enterprise reporting took them at The D.O. and beyond. Jerry taught us that stories don’t always come in conventional ways. He recalled that, while at The D.O., his reporting took him to a tree hollow where a source had dropped off information.

This is what we wanted Palooza to be about for our staff: the opportunity to delve further into Daily Orange history and to hear about what life was like for alumni when they were just like us — students trying to figure it all out.

One of the best parts about Palooza is the way that it motivates our staff. Hearing about the struggles that alumni faced during their time at The D.O. — finding time to write meaningful stories, fighting with your editor over putting “talisman” into a lacrosse game story, dealing with a department that’s a man down — shows us that many people have

A SEMESTER IN REVIEW • Media Cup came to an exciting end back in February. The Daily Orange had a blowout win, 52-37, over WAER in the Carrier Dome. Stellar performances by seniors David Wilson, Ankur Patankar and Stephen Bailey brought The D.O. to victory. Special thanks to alumnus Chris Carlson (’04) for coaching.

• Sports made it to the front page several times with the men’s basketball team’s record-setting 25-0 start to the season in Syracuse’s first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In addition to covering the team, the sports staff produced special projects such as the 2-3 Zone series, which was presented in a special format online featuring additional photos, graphics and GIFs. • The spring semester started off with some financial troubles. We published many 16-page papers, the smallest The D.O. produces, because of declining advertising revenue, particularly national advertising.

gone through what we’re going through.

Despite the challenges, our alumni made it out alive with some solid clips and a diploma.

With the year over, so are our roles in the management office. Maddy Berner, who served as managing editor in the fall, graduated in May. Chase Gaewski, managing editor for the spring semester, will study abroad in London next fall. There will be a new editor in chief in the fall, though I will be on campus for my senior year, hopefully not annoying the new staff too much.

Something I’ve realized in my time here is that when your duck runs in the paper, you haven’t really left this place. Even after you graduate, people at The D.O. still know your name. They see your byline in the archives and your face drawn with a duck’s bill hanging on the walls of management.

Even though we’ll be ducks, we’ll still be around.

Casey Fabris (’15) was editor in chief for the spring and fall semesters. She also served as president of the paper’s board of directors. Please feel free to contact her with comments or stories from your piece in history at The D.O. at caseyf412@gmail.com and on Twitter @ caseyfabris.

• The Board of Directors is looking into various new revenue sources to make up for these losses. Our IT and web departments are working on the biggest project, a housing website that will function as an online classifieds listing.

• Meanwhile, dailyorange.com has consistent traffic of about 175,750 page views per month. We have been making a conscious effort to present our stories well online, creating special presentation formats, GIFs, Storifies featuring reader reactions and increased multimedia.

• Social media continues to be a large draw for our readers. We have worked to build our following on Instagram with daily photo posts. In just a few months, our Instagram following has grown by more than 200.

• In what continues to be a difficult time for college newspapers, we continue to put out the best, most innovative content possible. The struggles that we face encourage us to think differently about how we write and present our stories. When there are only 16 pages in a paper, every inch counts.

.........What would you like the tag to say?

(Examples: “John Smith,” “In memory of John Smith”)

Questions and suggestions are always welcome. For more information about The Daily Orange’s nonprofit status and how to register the gift as tax-deductible, contact general manager Pete Waack at pwaack@dailyorange.com.

WANT TO DONATE TIME INSTEAD OF MONEY? Consider mentoring a member of the editorial or business staff, starting in the fall. Alumni will be paired with a student with similar career interests and/or a similar D.O. background.

From there, they’ll talk over email about their career path and how the D.O. got them there, internships, clips and anything else applicable.

Former staffers have said their mentor was their best source of information while at The D.O. and during the transition to the workforce. Some even credit their mentor’s support for the job they landed after college. It’s a small time commitment, and an easy way to give back.

If interested, please email alumni@dailyorange.com before mentors are assigned in September. (Recent grads are welcome.)

The Daily Orange sports staff poses after their Media Cup victory in the Carrier Dome in February, the first for the Scribes since 2010. CHASE GAEWSKI/MANAGING EDITOR

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MEET THE NEXT EDITOR IN CHIEF Lara Sorokanich, from Scranton, Pa., is a rising senior who is majoring in magazine journalism and Middle Eastern studies. She started at The D.O. as the paper’s abroad columnist while studying Arabic in Irbid, Jordan, during her sophomore year. She served as assistant feature copy editor in fall 2013, then feature editor in spring 2014. Instead of interning this summer, Lara will spend her summer planning for the 2014-15 school year and learning how to drive. Last year she interned at National Geographic in Washington, D.C., where she wrote and edited for the magazine’s website as the news and editorial intern.

As editor in chief, Lara plans to push The D.O.’s photography, design and videos. She’d also like to see The D.O. become a bigger source for breaking news and offer more campus-focused content throughout its sections. While she realizes these are big goals to take on, Lara is confident she can handle any challenge she will face as editor in chief — starting with taking on The Shoe at Battle 2014.

ALUMNIUPDATES

Saslow (’04) wins Pulitzer for Washington Post

By Maddy Berner DEVELOPMENT EDITOR

Ten years after leaving 744 Ostrom Ave., Eli Saslow has reached a pinnacle every journalist dreams of: winning the Pulitzer Prize.

On April 14, the Pulitzer Prize committee awarded Saslow (’04) journalism’s highest accolade. Saslow’s series on food stamps earned him the prize for explanatory reporting. The Washington Post also won the public service award for its coverage of the National Security Agency scandal.

In an acceptance speech given at the newspaper’s headquarters, Saslow thanked a number of people for working alongside him: David Finkel, his editor; Michael Williamson, who photographed the journey; and Rachel Saslow, his wife and partner since the two met in the halls of The Daily Orange a decade ago.

He also thanked the Post, which, despite changing management and a crumbling industry, always supported

his endeavors, he said.

“The Post has always been the place that still says, ‘Yes, go, do it,’ ” Saslow said.

Saslow’s series delved into the human perspective of the long-term, nationwide problem of food stamps. About 1 in 7 U.S. residents rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps low-income families purchase certain foods.

Saslow traveled across the country to follow the footsteps of these Americans,

2008

Liz Cardenas (Petty), a D.O. copy editor in 2005-’06, got married to Darren Cardenas in August 2012 and bought a house in the Greater Boston area in June 2013. They are starting a three-dog recreational mushing team of Siberian huskies, beginning with their first puppy, Layla, now 5 months old. Their second pup is expected to come home in early May 2014.

sometimes watching as they dealt with extreme hunger. He shadowed a family in the southern Texas town of McAllen and another in Washington, D.C. “It’s a huge act of courage for people to say, ‘Sure, come into my life and watch this happen and write about it for all these people to read,’ ” Saslow said in an interview for “PBS NewsHour” the day after he won. “What we try to do is we try to honor that courage by doing a good job of telling their stories, and doing it fairly and honestly.”

In his acceptance speech, Saslow teared up as he remembered watching a family survive on a bag of sweet potatoes.

“I hope some of the attention goes to people who are letting us into their lives,” he said.

While at The D.O., Saslow worked primarily as a sports editor, covering the basketball team’s 2003 run and beyond.

He would go on to cover high school sports in the D.C. area before turning his attention to feature writing. mjberner@syr.edu | @mjberner

2011

Adam Schatz, a former ad rep, works as an account manager at Twitter. He lives in New York, N.Y.

2012

Nichelle Broner, a former digital sales manager, works as an assistant account executive at GREY. She lives in New York City.

Submit any updates for the next alumni newsletter by emailing alumni@dailyorange.com.

This newsletter was edited and produced by Mark Cooper (’13), Brittney Davies (’10), Dara McBride (’13), Katie McInerney (’12), D.O. editor in chief Casey Fabris (’15) and managing editor Chase Gaewski (’15). Send feedback to alumni@dailyorange.com.

LANK

FROM PAGE 2

wife were buying their first house, they said they didn’t want any advice. That didn’t stop Lank. That night, she wrote down everything she knew and sent it to her son.

Her daughter-in-law passed on the advice to her circle of friends, giving Lank the idea for a newspaper column.

Lank wrote four columns in one night and sent them to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

The editor liked the column, but told her the paper couldn’t publish her name because there was a Lank Realtors in the area. Lank said there was also another reason.

“I hate to even confess it,” she said, “but I wasn’t sure people would take financial advice from a woman. So I used initials.” Lank was published under the name E.L. Hemmingway, which was the name of her street.

In the beginning, Lank said she lost sleep over not using her name. She finally persuaded her editor to print her name for a month. If anyone objected during that period,

the paper could go back to the pseudonym. In 38 years, Lank has never received any complaints.

After three or four months of writing, Lank wondered if the column could be published in cities outside of Rochester. She sent clips to about 100 papers across the United States.

“I was at the right place, at the right time. Nobody else was doing it, and real estate was booming,” she said. “I invented how to be self-syndicated. I didn’t have guidance from anybody.”

After all these years, Lank is still writing her column and has no intention of slowing down.

She receives about one mailed letter and several emails a day from readers. She also runs her own blog, “86 and Holding: Edith Lank’s Adventures in the Land of Aging,” which she updates almost daily.

“I’ve had a great time. And this has a tendency to be my line these days: The best part about being a writer is that you can do it sitting down. So I’m still doing it.”

— Meredith Newman, social media producer, mhnewman@syr.edu

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GERARD FROM PAGE2

a writers room in that sense,” he said.

While the show’s highly anticipted series finale received some negative criticism, Gerard said he feels that was only the result of the incredible passion of the show’s fans, and that those who worked on the show went out how they wanted to.

“We knew going in that it would be hard to please everybody, and I think the level of passion that came from the fans was almost a validation, in a way, that people cared so much,” he said.

Gerard and his writing partner, fellow SU alumnus Matthew Zinman (’04), are in the process of finding a new show. “Staffing season,” when TV shows hire their writing staff, is underway. They had a pilot picked up by NBC, but the network eventually passed on the script.

As he looks forward to moving on to a new job, Gerard says he will always look back on his experience at The D.O. as gratifying.

“I think that it was a great experience for me throughout going to Syracuse,” he said. “And I’m very proud of my time there.”

— Brendan Krisel, asst. copy editor, bskrisel@syr.edu

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Editor’s note: A very high percentage of the following article is made up. For the past decade, Daily Orange editors have written Media Cup stories under the byline W.F. Whence. W.F. Whence does not actually exist.

A long-standing rivalry was flipped on its head earlier this semester. The Daily Orange scribes, who had been ousted on James Arthur Boeheim Court several years in a row by WAER’s talking heads, finally pulled out a win under the big lights of the Carrier Dome.

But the thought on everyone’s mind wasn’t relief, or glory, or even happiness.

It was a question. When is W.F. Whence’s article, his triumphant once-a-year return to the world of journalism, going to be published?

Whence’s Media Cup Classic gamers have become a sort of local legend. It is the only game ever covered by the famed sportswriter. Year after year, it flows with a distinctly sophisticated syntax that remains unparalleled in the world of sports journalism— nay, in the vast world of writing.

NON PROFIT ORG

HUMOR COLUMNIST

US POSTAGE

LAYING OUT YOUR TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

The elusive W.F. Whence

By Chelsea DeBaise

PAID

tr a ditions

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

SYRACUSE NY

PASTE-UP

Take this year’s lede, for example: Oh, how many stages they had sojourned for this. The Earth had thrice cycled the aubade since the last day they could simper the simper of subjugators. So when the ultimate horn echoed throughout the bulbous tarp that constitutes Daryl’s Dome, the blood and sweat of prior vanquishments became reminiscences.

Former sports editor Michael Cohen (’13) addressed the significance Whence’s reputation has on the game-play itself.

“It’s everything,” Cohen said. “When you’re out there on the floor, you’re fighting for Whence. Sure you want to pummel WAER, that’s expected. But at the end of the day you never want to let the germanificated staff sculptor down.”

He is, however, an extremely elusive character. Few people have ever edited with Mr. Whence, or even seen him. He refuses to run a photo of himself with his articles and has kept an extremely low profile, even among Daily Orange staff.

The mystique of the writer himself is something Cohen has become aware of as well.

“Whence is a lot like Prince — at least that’s what I’ve heard,” Cohen said. “He’s a legend, a rock star, a prose-savvy savant.

Women want him and men want to be him.”

Whence’s aura is something David Wilson (’14) has come to revere over the years.

Wilson, another former sports editor, is one of the few people who have gone on the record as having spent time with Whence.

“W.F., in addition to being a dear friend, is a brilliant wordsmith,” Wilson said, followed by a brief acknowledgment of his friend’s strangely reclusive habits.

For Wilson, it’s all justified.

“He knows he could be a star, but prefers a simple life of pen and paper,” Wilson said.

Though difficult to track down, Whence responded to an email in order to comment briefly on his success, and the role he has played as a writer for The Daily Orange.

Whence’s response was, per usual, riveting, articulate and concise.

Said Whence: “The Everyday Orange is apotropaic for my permanence. I’m frightfully adroit and pulchritudinous.” cedebais@syr.edu

f r o m t h e wa l l s

As it states in The Daily Orange’s policy manual, any item that makes its way to the wall must stay there. That means, for the spring 2009 staff, this In The Huddle gaffe will be on display in the photo and design office for as long as 744 Ostrom is still standing.

For an edition of The D.O.’s sports extra about a February game against then-Big East rival Villanova, the staff created a pull-out poster on the inside spread for students and fans to hold up during the game, inspired by Wildcats star Scottie Reynolds. Luckily, the pressmen at Scotsman Press quickly noticed the pages were exported wrong and only a few copies of this screwed-up spread were printed.